Violet Folklore

Buffy Sainte-Marie, Queen of Folk

From Sasha

I just got my latest issue of Bust magazine (one of my fave reads-- the thinking woman's Cosmo, I like to call it) in the mail, and I was excited to see an article about Buffy Saint-Marie. Buffy started her career as a folk singer in the wild and wacky 60s, and I knew about her because my friend Angela in high school had her record Illuminations:

I didn't really get folk music back then, since I was mostly into goth and British guitar bands, but I totally got her cool "Vampire" song. That chilling voice with its sustained vibrato, that haunting melody and dark lyrics-- amazing.

Even though all the big names covered her songs at one point or another (she wrote songs that were huge hits for Donovan, Chet Atkins, Janis Joplin, and Taj Mahal- even Elvis covered her music!), I personally don't recall that Buffy was ever considered "cool" until the recent Folk Revival. Come to find out this was probably because her music was blacklisted for decades in the U.S., due to her strong political stance.  She continued to play in Europe, but her main venue in the U.S. was as a regular member of Sesame Street. She even breast fed her son on one groundbreaking episode!

A few months back I found this record in a clearance bin, and I picked it up based on the merit of the remembered "Vampire" song, and of course also for the great outfit on the cover:

Some of the phrasing on the more playful songs actually sounds quite a bit like our homegirl Joanna Newsome, but when that vibrato cuts through, there is no doubt that this powerful voice belongs to Buffy and Buffy alone. 

She lives in Kauai these days (jealous) and she has a new album coming out; you can check out her music here. Mad props to this powerful women who paved the way for all of us!

 

Loud, Proud, and Dancing Like Crazy

From Sasha

Whoa! Somehow the weekend is racing towards me, and I haven't even caught up from the last one! If you're like me, a member of the technologically co-dependent generation, you don't quite feel ready to move into the future until the recent past is uploaded. 

Sidewalk Art, Dolores Street

Last weekend was Pride in San Francisco, the biggest celebration in the whole world of the awesomeness that is the gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/tran-sexual community. Gay folks may be more present than ever before in the media and American consciousness, but (as I often have to remind people), it is seldom easy in our culture to grow up gay. There is still so much shame and fear around the expression of different sexualities, if not the experience of downright social ostracization and violence. 

You might wonder why I am standing on my soap box in my fashion blog to tell you something you already know, but there is still an incredible amount of ignorance around this subject. In my small town the "cool" post-person raised is eyebrows sky-high when I told him where I was off to for the weekend, and even in the Bay Area I have known of people who have been beaten up, had rotting veggies thrown at them, etc., just for being "queer". So many of my friends are gay/lesbian, and I feel very strongly that they deserve all the rights afforded to "straight" people. This is not just a theory, it is a conviction that comes from life experience-- try counseling a dear friend who, as a lesbian mother, lost her child when her wife left her, because gay marriage isn't legal in California and she had no legal custody. I could really go on. But let's talk celebrating!

Here I am at The Roxie on 16th Street... my friends Kymmie and Denah made a film (with me in it) called Devil's Dairymaid, which showed at the prestigious Frameline Gay/Lesbian/Trans-gender film festival, as part of the experimental film shorts program. 

There's (left to right) Inbar, Chris, and Jessie, and Amy; thanks to everyone who came out and made it a full house!!! You cheered so loud for me and that butter churn... gotta love it.

Me and my dear friend Armelle, who came down from Oregon to visit with me and our mutual friend Terese-- here we are waiting for the 24 Divisadero! 

My friends have the cutest kids... 

The girls reunited: me, Terese, and Armelle!

Andy from the SF band LSD and the Search for God (I can feel my father's comment coming here- I dunno Dad, you're going to have to ask Andy yourself!), Chris, and me... musical buddies 4 ever!

The Dyke March!

Ladies...

Rockers! These are my friends who play in the all-girl SF band Excuses for Skipping. They rocked the whole parade as it marched by!

For those of you who want to see it in action, here's a video snippet from their amazing cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean!:

Speaking of which, Michael Jackson is not a passing fancy in my friend Linda (the lead singer of Excuses)'s house. Here he is on the bathroom mirror, where he has been for years:

 ...and on the door to her room:

I love San Francisco. Where else do you find a kite-making camp? Hello? Oh, it's a gay olde towne! (-:

Ghosts, Miners, and Mandolins

...and the beautiful family homestead that encompasses them all...

From Amber

Last Friday me, Sasha, Graham, Mycie, and a couple other friends headed out to the home of local musician Mariee Sioux and family for a night of homemade pizza, catching up with friends, and snapping gorgeous photographs of their haunted land and of some lovely haunted threads:

Okay I don't exactly know if the land is haunted, but there is a palpable history to the place. The building in the above photographs, for example, was built by a miner in the 1850s. The mandolin hanging there is symbolic of Mariee's father's love of the instrument. A love that you can actually hear come through on the tracks he contributed to on her album Faces In The Rocks .

There is literally no end to the amazing backgrounds we found to take photographs in front of around their place, and we didn't even get around to all of it! Here are some shots of the new pieces that will be listed in the shop this week:

These jeans (and the three shirts above) will be listed on Etsy Tuesday or Wednesday (we have had a couple inquiries since posting this blog this morning! I am out of town for the night, but FYI they are XS/S...):

Mycie had tons of fun out there. There was so much to explore and such a magical feeling permeating the whole place. She spent a good amount of time out there the summer she was just about to turn one when we tended a garden plot in their large hillside garden, but she was much more capable of interacting with her lovely surroundings this time! Here she is with Sasha and Tanner on an old Native American grinding rock (See? I told you there was history to this place!):

The grinding rock, of course, wasn't nearly as captivating to her as the trampoline:

Same goes for Sasha :-)

Here they are again. We have devised a number of clever tricks for getting Mycie out of our Etsy shots! Luckily the nearby trampoline was all we needed this time.

This photo was the day's fave. After dinner we all sat down to review the pictures and this one just struck us as so funny:

And dude, check out the name brand of these shoes! Yes, Sioux:

Here is the front of the miner's cabin. This is probably my favorite picture ever of Mycie:

Beer, high-heeled boots, and lovely dress I will be blogging about someday:

Some random spots of beauty:

Miss Mariee herself chose to keep her precious face in the kitchen and out of these photographs, but her mama Felicia (yes, the vein braider thousand year bone burner), who has recently gone through a process of inner and outer transformation, was thrilled to have us take some pictures of her!

She is such a beautiful woman and taking pictures of her was fun for everyone, especially when she started really showing herself with these poses. We all loved how the lines of her body played against the lines of the trellis behind:

I just love how Felicia seems like not only Mariee (and Paul)'s mama in these pictures but also like divine mother and tender of this very special piece of land. I mean, if you've ever listened to Mariee's music you can understand how the land she grew up on influenced the sounds she produces.

These haunted hills, with thousands of years of Native American habitation, a short but intense period of gold mining frenzy, and now generations of artistically prolific folks settling in and sending their creations out into the world, continue to touch and inspire us as much as they have all those who went before...

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All In The Family

From Sasha

I wish I could blog more, but alas, between working full-time at my day job, running an online store, leading a rock band, and trying to have A Life, there is very little time left over to share with my wider community of online friends. Oh, the Catholic Guilt!

My Excuse For Not Blogging:

 

 

 

(that's a Marie Antoinette costume, circa 1969, that I rented from the costume shop in rough and Ready, and altered into a shorter dress)

But, Good Blogger or Bad Blogger, despair I shall not, especially because while one blogger rests, others are picking up the slack... most notably, two members of my very own family!

First, there is my hubby, Chris, who writes a satirical blog a la The Onion. He errs too far on the side of modesty, and tells NO ONE about his blog, but he agreed that I could share it with all ya'll! It's called Fakeblog and it now features a photo-shopped pic to accompany each post (yes, this is from the man who draws the hilarious comics you see on our Flickr)!

 

From the post "Sizzler, Sizzla Team Up For Reggae-Themed Steakhouse"

Then there is my absolutely fabulous cousin Erin, an Irish lass making her way in the glittering and gritty world of Film in Los Angeles. She has a lifetime of writing experience, and she is kindly sharing it with all of us via her blog, 21 Pimlico. She is smart and funny and entertaining as hell, and I am blown away by her latest post about Women's Body Image in The Media. It is one of the most honest and intelligent pieces I have ever seen on this subject which is very close to my heart... check it out!

 

Me, my cousin, and Chris!

Blog on, my sistren and brethren!!!

Rockers!

From Sasha

Where do Rockers come from? From other Rockers, of course!

When I went home last weekend for my mom's St. Paddy's Day party, I caught her wearing this t-shirt, which she swears she bought "just because she liked the design":

 

Yes indeedy, that's a Van Halen shirt! Now, just cause she has no idea who Van Halen are, does that make her any less of a Rocker? You decide!

Then there is my Dad, who (totally unintentionally) looks like he's the drummer in a classic rock band:

 

What can I do? Rocking is in my genes! So is hamming it up-- speaking of which, here I am, pretending I can do an Irish step-dance:

 

(My badge says "Kiss Me I'm Irish", of course. I took the liberty of wearing it for four full days leading up to St. Paddy's Day. After all, my mom is from County Kerry, so I've earned it!)

Now speaking of rocking, and flash fashion, check out these ladies who I'll be playing with this Saturday night at the Center For The Arts in Grass Valley!

First there is my friend Uni, better known as Uni and her Ukulele. She started her career as a back up singer for R & B legend Johnny Otis, and now she rocks her uke all over the world!

Tippy Canoe used to play drums in the legendary girl band The Kirby Grips, before being seduced by the ukulele! Don't you love her outfit? Seriously now. This is my first time meeting her and I am so excited!

 

My band, Sasha and the Shamrocks, with our new bass player Tyler, will be opening the show. It's going to be incredible fun, and you should definitely come on down!

 

By the way I have a very special Top Secret outfit planned for the evening... let's just say it's a reaaaaally big stage, and so it would be impossible to overdress.

Hope to see you there!

Speaking of Snow: Alela's New Album

Our friend and Violet Folklore model Alela Diane's new album, To Be Still, comes out today! Here is the gorgeous girl with the gorgeous new video for her gorgeous new song White as Diamonds.

You can check Alela out on Myspace or her website, and the album is available on iTunes.

Shamrocks Buried In Snow

From Amber

 

Now let's not overreact and blame Friday the 13th. It is no one's fault that Grass Valley is snowed in and that Sasha and the Shamrocks won't be able to make it to their show in Sacramento tonight. It's really too bad though, because Sash had an even better outfit picked out than this one, which she wore to their show in Nevada City on Tuesday night:

Headpiece designed and crafted by the bandleader herself! I adore it:

Sasha and Chris have no electricity, but send their Valentine love and heartfelt regrets to Sacramento.

And speaking of Friday the 13th, check out Sasha's blog post from last year about the lore of this wrongfully maligned day.

My Week In Pictures- Sasha

From Sasha

Whew! This was, of course, my first week back to work after the New Year's holiday (a holiday which was spent pretty much in a self-imposed catatonic state, horizontal on the living room floor with good friends and about a dozen videos). I so rarely slow down like that, and now I know why- it's a total shock to the system to get up and rolling again. First of all, I had reverted within two days to my natural Night Owl state, so getting to bed early enough to get enough sleep for the work week was pretty much impossible. To top it off, the whole world seemed to have thrown their Christmas decorations and all of their lazy merriment in the dustbin, and commerce was chugging full steam ahead with a persistently ringing phone and an endless stream of people coming to pick up supplements at my work. DON'T THEY KNOW IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS? My friends! Countrymen! I am craping thee negative... Christmas was not over until the morning of Wednesday, January 7th. 

"Huh?"

 

Does this look familiar? It's the Three Wise men, the Three Kings, or the Magi. Those magical dudes, the wizards of their time, had to ride camels for twelve days through the desert to reach the newborn baby Jesus Christ. There was no Jet Blue, peoples! Traveling to welcome the Messiah takes time, and Christmas takes time... or at least it used to. We all know the song, "on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...", well, in most of Europe and Latin America, Christmas is celebrated for twelve days. It starts with a little, quiet, meditative celebration on December 25th, and ends with a massive blowout on the Twelfth Night (yes, like Shakespeare's play!), which marks the occasion of the Magi's arrival in Jerusalem. 

The roots of this celebration go back much further, of course, to a time waaaay pre-baby Jesus... a time when my pagan ancestors celebrated the return of the sun at the Winter Solstice. Lucky for me, I am a Born Again Pagan, and I'm not alone! In my Advanced Herbal class with local herbalist Kathi Keville, we had our own Twelfth Night (aka Epiphany) (aka Little Christmas) celebration. Kathi shared with us some of her knowledge of the ancient myths and folklore connected with Christmas customs, which are largely associated with plants. Modern Christmas is big on Holly, Mistletoe, Rosemary, and of course the fabulous Evergreen tree... all sacred symbols long before Christianity came around! (The Druids used to gather the Mistletoe in white sheet so that it never touched the ground, and it wasn't used for romantic kissing at all, but rather to exchange the "kiss of brotherhood" with anyone who you had had strife with in the preceding year!) We all exchanged handmade herbal gifts (including frankincense, that traditional tree resin used for purification) and then we lit the Christmas tree WITH REAL CANDLES (!) and spontaneously sung "O Tannenbaum". It was so incredibly sweet. I really want to thank Kathi for giving us the gift of this celebration... we always acknowledged Little Christmas in my house growing up, since my mother hails from County Kerry, Ireland, but no one else ever knows what I am talking about when I say "you can't take the decorations down til the 6th of January!" Honestly my feelings are hurt every year by the way people are so eager to "move on" after Christmas. If it's supposed to be the Happiest Day of the Year, then why the heck does it have to be only ONE DAY??? Total American rush-around NONSENSE!!! Grrrrr.

Okay, tirade over... now, doesn't that look good right there? It was so pretty I had to take a picture, and prove to those of you who read my New Year's Resolutions that I am indeed back in the kitchen again! These are purple potatoes and garnet yams with nutritional yeast and coconut oil, with a side of kale sauteed with onions and Nettle Vinegar. I've been having so much fun throwing herbal tinctures in my cooking-- in this one I put Lemon Balm, for calming the nerves and aligning with the growing full moon!

 

And that right there is Milk Thistle, which I have been taking (in capsule form) all week at a fairly high dosage. I felt like my liver was getting congested before the Holidays, but after New Years and the requisite Partying, the symptoms were really starting to come above the radar-- I had weirdly broken out skin, and a really PISSY feeling towards people at work and on the road. So no more beer for a few weeks, lots of water, anti-oxidants, and Milk Thistle, the supreme liver herb. Milk Thistle is so effective for this, arguably our most important organ (think Waste Sorting and Disposal, and if you've ever seen a big city in the middle of a garbage strike, you'll understand why I argue so strongly in favor of the liver), that it can even help regenerate damaged tissue. Well, hopefully I didn't damage anything, but it WAS a pretty memorable New Years...

 

And when Christmas was fully over, yes, even Sasha got down to work. Here I am in the wee hours of Friday morning, working on getting the lighting and framing right for doing indoor photo shoots. Of course the cats Mucha and Zazou were batting each other through the curtain and stepping on the laptop keyboard while I was uploading photos... and, early in the morning, when I stumbled downstairs with eyes half-shut, there they were with a special gift for me!: 

Sorry, maybe I should have given you a Queasy Alert? I am equally disgusted and fascinated by this. It's a quail, one of the most beautiful birds in our neighborhood, and I was always afraid that our cats, who are amazing hunters, would nab one. I mean, they're just so cute bobbing along in a single file line in their big family, all with those little black feathers sticking out the top of their heads... sigh... but they move kind of slow, and the neighbors put a bird feeder out in the winter (though I love birds, I don't, for obvious reasons!). At least our cats stick to birds and vermin. I have heard some of the craziest stories about what people's cats catch out here in the country... the most memorable one involved an Abyssinian cat, who would deposit the heads of the huge hares he had killed on the bed while his people were sleeping-- and this happened on a nearly nightly basis! 

Speaking of good catches... (I couldn't think of a better segue-way! sorry!) I caught something valuable this week-- a pair of tickets to see one of my very favorite bands, The Raveonettes! I always seem to miss them when they are in the States, but this time I'm going. I deserve a big awesome concert, especially after the Amanda Palmer debacle (I mixed up the date of the show and missed it entirely...I was heartbroken!) (Thanks again to my friend Nicole who sent me all kinds of Amanda Palmer and Dresden Dolls Cds and DVDs so I could pretend I was watching them live... you are a doll!) The Raveonettes show is at Bimbos 500 Club in Sam Clam's Disco, one of my very favorite clubs for many reasons, but especially because the interior is so 1940s swanky, you simply can NOT be overdressed. Now the problem is, what will I wear?!?!? Because I haven't got a stitch, you know... (;

 

Lastly, I would like to thank Etsy for filling my coffers to the point where I could finally, after many years of crushing penury, buy a plane ticket to go and visit my dear friend Automne in Portland! The weekend I'm going up there, her band, Fever, are playing. (Some of you Portlanders may also know her for her main musical project, Cat Fancy!.) I am so excited to see her and to see the people in the soggy and mysterious City of Roses. In another, less countrified life, I would live there... but at least I can go visit.

 

Automne on keyboards at Fever's latest show

Hope you all made it back into the swing of things. I am over-tired but happy, looking forward to watching Zoolander later tonight (it's my first time! I know!) and Taking It Down a Peg. See you all on the other side of Sunday!

Devil's Dairymaid

From Sasha

I just love my talented friends! My amazing pals Kymmy and Denah from San Francisco made this beautiful film on real 16mm, and asked me to be their muse... it was my first time "acting" (although it can be argued that a woman acts every day of her life! ha!) and I was so happy they gave me this chance. It was super fun and the film, well, what could be better than something called "Devil's Dairymaid"??? They did all the music too (they have their own fabulous band called The Cameos)! This is the first time it has been available online, so roll out the red carpet, here is my debut!!! 


Devil's Dairymaid from d.a. johnston on Vimeo.

(That's a Gunne Sax dress, btw!)

If you would like to contact Denah about this film or any of her other fabulous work you can e-mail her here:

goingforawalk@gmail.com

Thanks Kymmy and Denah for being true forces of creativity in my life, and in the artistic community of Northern California!

Nevada County Street Style: Alela Diane at the BriarPatch

From Amber

After a long and arduous day of taking photos on a freezing ass hillside two Sundays ago, Sasha and I headed over to our local natural foods co-op for some hot dinner and some quality time with our laptops. I usually take my camera with me every time I leave the house just in case I spot an outfit worthy of our world famous NCSS posts ;-)

Too bad I forgot mine that night.

Good thing Sasha remembered hers.

Because, about 15 minutes to closing time, standing there in the checkout line I spied with my little eye one Alela Diane (check her out on MySpace too), clad in the coziest looking sweater, some seriously loved boots, and one fabulous flower motif stamped leather purse.

Luckily it wasn't raining out, because Alela has worn these boots so many times that they literally have holes on the soles:

If you haven't heard yet, Alela is one of the darlings of the ever-growing folk music community (also referred to as free folk, freak folk, psych folk, New Weird America, and anything anyone else can think of that sounds interesting and folksy and hip). A Nevada City native, Alela grew up steeped in a rich cultural milieu surrounded by artists (such as her mother) and musicians (such as her father). She didn't pick up a guitar until she was 20 years old (interesting aside- Alela was my husband's high school girlfriend and she once told me that she started writing songs to get through the heartache of their breakup), but it didn't take her long to master the technicalities of the instrument, which provides the perfect accompaniment to her strong, entrancing voice and rich, haunting lyrics.

Though she possesses the voice and poise of an old soul, Alela's clothing reflects the hip and modern tastes of a hometown ever at the forefront of creativity. She is, like most of us here, a thrift enthusiast. Which surely has something to do with why she is always well attired, appearing perfectly dressed to fulfill the dreams of so many free spirited artists born and bred in these hills who came before. As Sasha said in her intro to our first ever Nevada County Street Style post, "Nevada City is home to some of California's most beautiful girls... Raised swimming in cerulean rivers and breathing clean mountain air, these daughters of the Gold Rush and the hippie urban exodus of the  early 70s are smart, well dressed, and full of independent spirit."

This outfit is a perfect example of said well-dressed-ness. The sweater she got while touring in Canada. Sasha and I just loved the color, the cable knitting, and the big, bold buttons:

And the purse! The perfect touch to finish off this "sophisticated bohemian ingenue that just got back from touring in Europe and needs to stock up on groceries" look:

Here is a video of Alela and boyfriend Tom Bevitori performing the incredible Dry Grass & Shadows:

Alela's new album To Be Still is coming out in February! And here is a video of her singing my favorite of her many beautiful songs off her previous album The Pirate's Gospel, Oh My Mama: